“So, what now? Do we disappear into a cornfield?”
“What do you mean we’re walking?”
Will kept quiet, though. Had it not been for his shoes crunching on the gravel as they walked alongside the road, Cole might’ve thought Will really had disappeared into one of the cornfields.
He was there, though. Silent. Cold. Gaze fixed straight ahead.
Fuck. Cole didn’t like this at all. The stealth was great for the time being, but not like this. As soon as they were someplace safe, he had to fix the air between them.
He wasn’t sure how, but he had to.
They were half a mile or so from the airport when Will spoke, startling Cole so bad he almost staggered into the ditch.
“So where exactly are we going?” His voice was flat and frosty.
“Um.” Cole cleared his throat as he recovered. Gesturing ahead, he said, “There’s a sports bar up the street.” He paused, expecting Will to tease him about stopping for a beer or wanting to catch the game. Of course, there was no teasing. Will was innomood. Sliding his hands into his pockets, Cole said, “Places like that, people show up in older cars. The kind that can still be hotwired.”
“Oh.”
And… that was it. No question. No snark. Not even an annoying pet name.
Yeah, Cole had seriously fucked up.
One way or another, he had to fix it. How? No idea, especially considering he sucked atconversations. He’d grown up in a house full of people who didn’t talk about feelings or emotions, and he didn’t think he heard his first in-person apology until he was in college. Problems were swept under a rug until the help came along and got rid of them. When Dad was mad at Mother, he decompressed with one of his various mistresses. When Mother was pissed off at Dad, she spent his money. Eventuallythey’d act like nothing had ever happened, and everyone would move on.
Will wasn’t Cole’s spouse, but they were joined at the hip for the time being. Assuming of course Will didn’t throw up his hands, say “fuck it,” and hitchhike into the sunset.
As much as Cole hated to admit it, he needed Will.
And as much as he hated to admit it even more, hewantedhim here. He didn’t want to do this alone, and he didn’t want to do it without Will’s admittedly useful skills and insight.
Cole had to fix this.
How? No idea.
But he had to.
First things first—get a car and get someplace safe.
Then it was time for the most dangerous, high-stakes op he’d ever attempted:
Unfuck things with Will.
Acquiring a vehicle and getting to a safe place—that was easy. Outside the sports bar a mile and a half from the airport, Cole hotwired an early 1990s Honda Civic. Half a mile later, outside a different bar, they switched the license plates with another vehicle.
From there, they drove a solid hour into the hills of backwoods Virginia, where they found a Walmart that was open late. Getting their hands on a couple of burner phones was easy, and they also grabbed some food and bottled water.
In the car, Cole pulled up an app for vacation rentals. Sure enough, there were a few in the area. After a few messages with an owner and a credit card number from one of Cole’s aliases, they had a place for them to hunker down for the night.
“Do I want to know?” Will groused.
Cole shrugged. “It’s a place to lay low for a couple of nights.”
Will was silent for a good mile before he apparently couldn’t take it anymore. “Are you going to tell me?” His irritation wasn’t as fun as it had been prior to things going south in the cockpit.
Adjusting his grip on the wheel, Cole said, “I found a vacation rental. Told the owner we had a reservation with another, but it got canceled, and I basically begged and pleaded for a last-minute reservation for tonight.”
“And… that worked?”
